Why Nuclear Arms Control Won’t Work Without New Weapons (From Forbes)

President Biden has extended the New START nuclear arms control agreement for five more years, to 2026. That’s a good thing in terms of fostering a stable nuclear balance between America and Russia. However, the stability enshrined in New START depends on preserving a credible retaliatory capability that can severely punish nuclear aggression, and the current decade will be pivotal in terms of assuring that. Because of wishful thinking and bad management in previous administrations, all three legs of the strategic Triad face declining reliability and then retirement in the next decade. So if we want New START to preserve the peace, we need the Biden administration to press ahead with nuclear modernization. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.